I thought this was a " no brainer " ! East wind generally heralds a low or falling barometric pressure which can be a turn off for fish and a rough lake 1
Another great " Bottom Line " sk8man ! Captain Dan Keating in his most recent book " Big Water Wisdom " discusses this in some detail currents and there importance plus extoling the virtues of speed and temperature probes .IMO pays your money and take your chances but do not " forget about the basics " !
Ditto on " You just cost me a lot of money " ! How did we manage in the 1980s without these "toys " ! We caught more fish then and were limited to only one rod in Ontario then !
As previously posted there is no " perfect " boat ! Lot of good hands on advice as usual for the topic ! My passion , living on Lake Ontario is fishing & have been doing it for 35 years . An aluminum boat works for me , most of which has been posted . I trailer the boat had the boat docked at a local marina but for a smaller boat it was not the best all round usage .
As far as the manufacture you generally get what you pay for ! The comment on Lund boats was interesting and would have to be considered when making a purchase !
I pick my days the best I can because once it gets scary it stops being fun !
The Lund 18.5 would be my first chose ; how much trailering will you be doing and with what vehicle ? Those who suggest fiberglass usually focus on better cruising and a more stable platform on the water ! Everyone still has to pick their days ! I would also look at a Yamaha engine but the Lund probably comes as a package ?
Use mostly " Off Shore " pinch type since they were available ! Disadvantage , they cannot handle a big paddle without slipping off ! For that I use Blacks ! #2 Disadvantage cannot " reef " down rod so fish will hook themselves when they hit the lure !
Captain Dan Keating in his new book " Big Water Wisdom " ; one of the Q&A was " scent " . He wrote , quiet honestly that " he just didn't know ! " Probably another smoke and mirrors but if scent works for you stay with it until it quits ! [ " Zapper " from Tillsonburg Ontario finally told me his secret scent ; cod liver oil, brown sugar and citrus ie lemon juice . As previously posted it could have been the nicotine on his fingers because it did nothing for us ! we would mix and match scented spoon on port and same spoon sans scent on starboard side no apparent difference IMO !
Glad to see new postings ! Our German short haired pointer " Molly " is 4 months old & have learned a lot about the breed ! [ having hunted with a guy his GSP was hopeless and useless along with teaching our yellow Lab her bad habits ! No one wanted to hunt with this guy ]
Clearly these dogs take a lot of work and if anyone wants a good field dog you have to start YOUR training with a puppy !
Use quality ball bearing swivels [ ie expensive ] ! And if your are going to run j-11 or j-13 chartreuse Rapalas tie directly to the bait [ no snap ] imo !
We see a lot of " mange " in Niagara ! One of the " arguments " postured by the antis that the mange will serve as a natural from of control rather than us shooting them lol ! Have pictures of one coyote we took with mange so bad it would not have survived ! 2 weeks later we took a prime **** with a perfect coat in the same field !